Author: RTOlson

Heading toward Chico at 75 miles per hours. Trilling, Really.

OK, so I was a little peeved that I had to wait at home in the middle of the day for a UPS delivery — especially because I didn’t know what it was (I hadn’t ordered anything lately). I getting a little anxious when the UPS guy shows and a small box into my hands.

I quickly open it up and, to my utter surprise, it was a silver Apple iPod mini. Apparently I was one of the winners of the latest Pepsi-iTunes giveaway where they were giving an iPod away every hour for two months. I was mainly using the promotion to score “free” songs when I buy a soda.

Now, I have something to put my tunes on. It says it can hold about 1,500 songs (for 100 hours worth of music). Bah, I can load up my episodes of This American Life — 430 hours worth (almost 18 days!).

The offer of an iPod shuffle was too tempting for me while I was looking for cell phone service. The camera phone that I got along with the plan was just an added bonus and the two months of “free” data services are nice. However the camera’s got the potential to be some fun, especially in Davis in two weeks.

I’ve set up a “moblog” to showcase my latest technological acquisition. It’s certainly going to be an interesting next two months and you can check out currycrazy.textamerica.com for the latest.

Below is the first image from the phone (well, it’s a script to show the five latest images, but I only have one thus far.):

Just a heads up to everyone who might still be reading this blog (I know there’s at least two of you). I’m still alive in Chico. My blogging took a bit of a hiatus because I got cable Internet at home (Comcast) but I didn’t have a desk for my computer.

I had my iMac perched on a WWE-style folding chair while the keyboard was cradled in my lap. The mouse rested atop a box. Needless to say, writing was extremely uncomfortable and I kept typing to a minimum. But that’s changed with the contribution of a old desk contributed by co-worker Roger. I’m now sitting in the chair and it’s great.

More to come.

I joined a gym and got my first library card in four years. I feel like a more productive member of society already. :-p

I’m not typically a person to go without a library card, but it cost $50/yr. to access the Portage Lake District Library (because I lived outside the district). It would probably have been a good service, but I loathe paying annual fees for the most part.

I didn’t go to the final screening at the El Rey tonight, but I was drawn to the theater when I saw a police car, fire engine and an ambulance parked in front of the theater with their lights on.

Quickly (and safely) pulling into an open parking spot, I spring to action and ask a woman about to head out from under the sundered theater’s marquee with her camera clutched in her hand. According to her, one gentleman apparently decided to celebrate the theater’s closing in high style by drinking. While the emergency vehicles pulled away, she pointed to a young man in a black T-shirt being helped across Second Street by a similarly young woman.

She said he was fine at first, laughing along with the rest of the audience, but then he got obnoxious. Then he got quiet. When the lights went up at the end of “Sideways,” people snapped their final photos of the house and noticed the man passed out in his seat. Apparently, he had a bottle of alcohol in a paper sack that he was sipping from during the movie.

I desperately wanted him to be drinking pinot noir to coincide with the wine tour depicted in the film, but she didn’t know what he was drinking. Although the woman wanted tighter screening so people can smuggle booze in, she said it didn’t detract from the last lighting of the El Rey.

As the woman is about to head across the street, she said the closing of the theater was a sad occasion. I relented from my inquisition as she walks across the street and away from the theater one last time.

The theater will be renovated into an office/retail location and renamed The Majestic, one of its former incarnations.

I went to see the movie Sideways tonight at the soon-to-be closed El Rey theater in downtown Chico. The theater is due to be closed on Thursday to make way for its transformation into an office-retail complex with perhaps more importantly public parking in the rear of the building.

Being my first, and probably last, time in this theater, I’ve naturally got a few mixed feelings. I’ve grown up in an era with multiplexes. The one or two one-screen theaters I saw films in quickly fell by the wayside. Although seeing movies like Harry Potter at The Pic in Hancock was a joy, it was a rare occasion that brought me there.

In Chico, the old theater’s glory seems to be as faded as some of its interior murals and montages. Some portions of the mural seemed to have been ravaged by the intrusion of water. Still, there’s no denying the grandeur of the large bowl that constitutes the house. The walls are surrounded by what appears to be dancing water nymphs across a pale blue forest. I imagine such lurid depictions would be passe in these times of “outrage.”

There was some stadium-style seating that apparently was there before it became vogue in movie theaters. The seats in the center aisles were replaced with newer models that don’t seem to replicate the big, springy goodness of the older seats that still haunt the fringes. I noticed that most people tended to stay in the newer seats.

So what role does a gigantic, one-screen theater play in a world that has endless entertainment options available 24/7 without even the discomfort of leaving your own rocker-recliner? I’m not sure, but it would’ve been nice to see at least one more film in the old Majestic (its former name).

The thing that these old, one-screen theaters provided is a sense of community on a large scale. As we slowly lose that sensation to evolution and destruction, I hope there’s something that define who we are in the modern era.

I guess you can’t trust everything you read on the Internet. In yesterday’s post, I lamented the fact that Comcast apparently didn’t offer high-speed cable Internet in the middle of a college town. All of that changed when I phoned Comcast’s Chico office earlier today.

To cut a not-so-long story short, the customer service woman informed me that cable Internet services _are_ available for my apartment.

That does complicate the situation a bit because I don’t know if Comcast offers everything I need. Looking at the other services available, I don’t know if SBC, Dish Networks, whoever offers everything I need.

The hunt continues.

Just looking up some possible phone numbers on the SBC Web site (BTW, SBC, what was wrong with names like PacTel or Ameritech (or Pacific Bell or Michigan Bell, for that matter)? And why do you have to hide your former name “Southwestern Bell Company” with a silly acronym?)

Anywho, they’ve presented me with several interesting options. A quick check to PhoneSpelling.com presents some funny names by using the letters matched with each number on the keypad.

For 345-3285, it comes back such great “FILE-AT-5” (perhaps a newspaper reference?), “DIKE-AT-5” (if only I was a lesbian… oh wait, “dike” means levee.) “345-FAT-5” (perhaps reminding me to diet), “FILE-CULL” (definitely a newspaper reference), “FILE-BULK” (definitely a reference to my tendency to be a packrat).

Since that’s the most interesting number (in terms of spellings), that’ll probably be the one I’ll choose. Although “TWIN-HULL” does sound intriguing…

CHICO, Calif. — Finally getting settled into an apartment after hotel hopping for a week. It’s amazing, but the constantly deflating air mattress I slept on last night seems more comfortable than the hotel beds I’ve been in.

My apartment is very much a blank canvas seeing as it’s completely unfurnished and having more rooms than I know what to deal with (two of them remain vacant to be leased out later). Hopefully I can fill the empty space in the heart of my apartment over the next few months (and an Ikea run or two). It’s almost like getting married, without the whole pesky bride. I’ll need something borrowed, something new, something … something and something blue.

I’m slightly disappointed reading on the Comcast Web site that it doesn’t offer cable Internet services in my neighborhood. It’s especially sad because of the fact that nearly all of the rooms in this apartment have cable hook-ups.

For more than six years, I’ve used cable Internet services (Cox and Charter) and I’ve had an extremely positive experience. So much so that I’ve never thought to stray to other services such as DSL (for Internet access) and digital satellite (for TV).

So after calling the local Comcast office on Monday, I’ll officially be in the hunt for services elsewhere. I just need to keep reminding myself that I don’t own a TV right now.

While I’m thinking about it, why is it so hard finding the local phone packages on the SBC Web site? No, I don’t want Caller ID, voice messaging or acupuncture. I just want an affordable package offering just local phone service (and maybe DSL). Is that so hard? It shouldn’t be.

My new address, by the way, is:

717 Hazel St.
Apt. 4
Chico, CA 95928

Go wild with the snail mail.